Ken Live Blogs Conference ... Again! 192nd Annual General Conference

[Kenngo1969]

Disclaimer: This is not an actual or faithful transcription. What I heard may bear little correspondence with what the speaker actually said, and what I wrote may bear little correspondence with what I heard. Readers are advised to review these messages in the Liahona next month.

 

192^nd Annual General Conference

Saturday Morning Session

 

President Russell M. Nelson

• Difficulties in the world continue: The pandemic continues, and war racks parts of the earth

• As followers of Jesus Christ, we plead with leaders of nations to seek peaceful solutions and to end conflict

• The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only enduring solution for peace; it is a Gospel of Peace

• We must preach the Gospel to every creature; we have a responsibility to share it with all who will listen

• Everyone who has made covenants has promised to care for those in need

• We have promised to share our “reason for the hope that is in us”

• He reaffirms the mandate that every worthy, able young man should serve a mission (sisters’ service is optional)

• Your decision to serve a mission will bless you and many others

• World’s spiritual darkness has made the light of Christ more needed than ever

• May you seek and receive personal revelation during these sessions

[Kenngo1969]

M. Russell Ballard of the Twelve

• President Ballard has suffered from macular degeneration in one eye

• His vision has been augmented in other ways

• His mission blessed his life and has shaped his eternal destiny

• President Ballard and his college friends decided to serve missions

• His parents were out of town when he received his call; they were surprised when he informed them he had been called to serve in the British Isles

• President Ballard’s mission has blessed him professionally as well as in service in the Church of Jesus Christ

• President Ballard in 1985 spoke of preparing to serve a mission: Nothing he has done in the Church of Jesus Christ has had more of an impact on his life as serving a mission has

• The Lord prompts His missionaries with the Holy Ghost; missionaries can show the Lord that he can trust them

• “I testify that it was on my mission that I came to know that my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ love me”

• He reflected on his call to preside over the mission in Toronto Canada in 1974

• President Kimball’s call for every worthy, able young man to serve a mission has not been rescinded or superseded

• All young men and young women should speak with parents and friends about serving a mission

• We should strive to keep our hearts, hands, and minds clean and worthy

• We should gain a solid testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ

• The family is the most profound influence in preparing young men and young women to serve mission

• Bishops should help all young men and women of missionary age to prepare and identify those who are old enough but who have not served

• He thanked missionaries who are currently serving

• Even in these difficult times, the Lord has had a work for you [missionaries] to do, and you have done it wonderfully well

• Release from a mission is not release from being active in the Church: work hard, pray, and be obedient

• Sons of Mosiah: “Be patient in afflictions … and I will make thee an instrument in My hands to the blessing of many souls

[Kenngo1969]

Sister Reyna Aburto

• Sister Aburto accepted the invitation to “Come and See,” and, eventually, was baptized

• Members embraced her and her son as they were brought to the Savior, nourished by the good word of God, and found fellowship with the Saints

• They made and kept covenants which bound them to each other and to Jesus Christ

• The Church is the scaffolding on which we build eternal families

• Lord can use us despite our shortcomings

• We are all part of the family of God

• Relief Society is a global community of covenant women with a divine mission and purpose

• The Church is the church of members, with Jesus Christ at the head: “Whosoever cometh unto me, he is of my Church”

• The body of Christ’s church is not one member, but many

• Let us have the faith of a child and know that even our smallest efforts are making a difference in his kingdom

• “And they all, both they who were healed and they who were whole, did bow down at his feet, and worship Him”

• We need each other, and we can bring each other to the Savior

[Kenngo1969]

Elder David A. Bednar of the Twelve

• I do not sing well, but I love to sing

• The hymns of the Restoration stir my soul

• “We will heed not what the wicked may say, but the Lord, alone, we will obey”

• People in Lehi’s vision continually held fast to the rod of iron until they came to the tree and partook of the fruit

• Their response to the people in the Great and Spacious Building: “We heeded them not”

• Heed – Taking notice of or paying attention to someone or something

• We must not pay attention to the mocking and scorn that come from the multitudes in the Great and Spacious Building

• We must focus in and on the Lord Jesus Christ to be fortified with spiritual strength

• “If we do what’s right we have no need to fear, for the Lord, our helper, will ever be near”

• Covenants bind us to our Savior and to our Heavenly Father

• We must trust in our Savior in our Heavenly Father during our journey through mortal life

• As we honor sacred covenants and ordinances, we are drawn closer to Him and experience His divinity and living reality in our lives

• As covenant making, covenant keeping disciples of Jesus Christ, we can take courage that the Lord is on our side

• What comes from the Great and Spacious building is empty

• Disciples have firm testimonies of plan of happiness, atonement

• Lord’s ministering to them is personal and specific, not general and abstract: Christ is a personal Savior

• Covenants are like a compass

• The cardinal direction of mortality is to come to and be perfected in Christ

• “An unseen power will aid me and you in the glorious cause of truth”

• The iron rod is the word of God: Whoso holdeth fast unto it will never perish

• John: Jesus Christ is the Word

• “We believe the Bible … and the Book of Mormon to be the word of God”

• “In the days of trial his saints he will cheer, and prosper the cause of truth”

• Press on, hold fast, heed not

• “In the fight for right, we will wield a sword, the mighty sword of truth”

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve

• One voice can be amplified through social media and may be broadcast across the world

• No one is immune from polarizing voices

• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”

• We must calm, cool, and extinguish all of the Adversary’s fiery darts

• Everyone is an offspring of God, but in order to become Chidlren of God, we must make and keep covenants

• We must remain confident in our beliefs, sharing our beliefs with conviction, but not with rancor or animosity

• “We can gripe about the bad and refuse to acknowledge the good, but this approach will not ameliorate problems”

• Peacemakers are not passive, they are persuasive in the Savior’s way

• “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you for my sake”

• Two Peacemaking Principles

  • God has given everyone agency

  • Agency allows for opposition in all things: We taste the bitter to know to prize the good

• Regardless of the number of the voices to the contrary, we must be peacemakers

• We must remain true to our testimony of Jesus Christ until our dying breath

• “If the world hateth you, know that it hated me before it hated you”

• Good Samaritan illustrates that we reach out to all, regardless of their differences from us

• Boundary lines should exist without becoming battle lines

• Chief priests mocked Christ, but “He answered them nothing”

• Even some disciples who walked with Christ during His most majestic miracles “went back, and walked no more with Him”

• “Jesus withdrew Himself from them”: We, too, can move away from contention

• Jesus washed the apostles’ feet—even those of the one who would betray Him; even knowing of the forthcoming betrayal, He spoke of Love

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Eduardo Gavarret of the Seventy

• “I give you my heart: I have nothing more to give you”

• “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit”

• “The spirit hath wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more desire to do evil, but to do good continually”

• Young man missed church to play in a soccer game, then was asked to give a lesson about the Sabbath Day

• “The Sabbath Day has become a delight”

• How do we know when our heart is changing: When we want to please God in all things

• We maintain the mighty change of heart when we renew and keep Sacramental and Temple covenants, when we love and serve others

 

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Larry S. Kacher [Sp?] of the Seventy

• We may not see all things, but the Lord does

• “The Son of Man hath descended below [all things]; art thou greater than He?”

• Infant blessed to live, but the Lord had other plans

• There is simplicity even in complexity as we remain steadfast

• Faith is not static: It depends on choices

• Is guilt our primary motivator, or is love?

• “Faith without works is dead, being alone”

• Obedience and faith in the Savior qualify us to have His Spirit to be with us

• Ken saw a sign in a Seminary building once: “The day obedience becomes a quest and not an irritation is the day we gain power”; This isn’t what the speaker said, but it captures the gist

• “I say unto you ye shall receive grace for grace”

• Faith is not by chance, but by choice

• Laman and Lemuel descended the ladder of faith while Nephi ascended it

• “Only by aligning our will with God’s is true happiness to be found.” —Neal A. Maxwell

[Robert F. Smith]

An excellent first session.  I wasn't able to sleep through any of the addresses.

[Kenngo1969]

President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency

• Wherever we are, we know we live in increasingly perilous times

• We must remember that we are beloved children of God and that He has inspired his servants to foresee the times in which we live

• We must have eyes to see and ears to hear

• There is hope in God’s promise of a place of safety for the storms ahead

• “Remember, remember, that it is upon the rock of our redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build our foundation … when the storms shall beat upon us, they shall have no power over us because we are built upon the Rock”

• We must know, now more than ever, how to build upon that sure foundation

• King Benjamin provided the keys of how to build on that sure foundation

  • We are free to choose, but we cannot avoid the consequences of our choices, and Christ is the only sure foundation upon which we may build

  • We may follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit or of the Evil One: We receive the wages of him who we list to obey

  • “I pray that ye should awake to a rememberance of the awful situation of those who have fallen into transgression”

• All will stand before the Savior: Will we shrink, or will we look to Him and hear Him say to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”?

• We must have our natures changed: That is the only way to stand firm in the storms that lie ahead

• We must become as a little child: King Benjamin, a man of strength and courage, understood as well as anyone that being child-like is not being childish; it is to be strong (in Christ) as opposed to being weak

• “The natural man is an enemy to God, and will be forever and ever, unless he yieldeth to the enticings of the holy spirit, and putteth off the natural man, and becometh as a child, humble, meek, sumissive, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which Christ seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father”

• Our faith in Jesus Christ leads us to repentance; obedience brings power to resist temptation; and we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost in greater abundance

• The Holy Ghost speaks in a quiet voice heard most often when the heart is submissive: “I want what You want; just tell me what that is, and I will do it”

• Christ has given YOU a personal invitation to come to Him, for Peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come

• Christ knows the way; He IS the way: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”

 

[Kenngo1969]

Just now, Robert F. Smith said:

An excellent first session.  I wasn't able to sleep through any of the addresses.

I hate it when that happens!    

[Kenngo1969]

I think I got everybody ... I couldn't resist responding to Robert's remark, so I was a little sidetracked.   Let me know if I missed anyone: I have the notes, but may not have posted them.

[Navidad]

Deleted because I never intended it to be contentious!

Edited April 2, 2022 by Navidad

[Navidad]

1 hour ago, Kenngo1969 said:

I think I got everybody ... I couldn't resist responding to Robert's remark, so I was a little sidetracked.   Let me know if I missed anyone: I have the notes, but may not have posted them.

Are we not supposed to reply on a thread like this? Should I delete my last comment?

[longview]

1 minute ago, Navidad said:

Are we not supposed to reply on a thread like this? Should I delete my last comment?

Both are TRUE.  Take heed lest we take on the spirit of contention.  Right?

[Calm]

48 minutes ago, Navidad said:

Are we not supposed to reply on a thread like this? Should I delete my last comment?

Social threads are not debates or critiques, think mostly positive contributions in comments. 

[Kenngo1969]

55 minutes ago, Navidad said:

Are we not supposed to reply on a thread like this? Should I delete my last comment?

Feel free to comment as you wish.  I'm a little busy, but I will reply later.    

[Kenngo1969]

Re: The sustaining 

"We invite any who may be opposed to the proposals to speak with their stake president."

Aw, geez! 

What fun is that?!!  It is much more funnerer to grab headlines by disrupting the meeting in front of a worldwide audience!    

[Kenngo1969]

1 hour ago, Navidad said:

Thanks for the great summary. I find the statement that "no one is immune from polarizing voices" to be interesting. I think there might be an even greater personal spiritual lesson in tweaking that statement just a bit to read, "no one is immune from being a polarizing voice." Thanks again and take care.

3 Nephi 11:29-30.  Thanks!  

[Kenngo1969]

Saturday Afternoon Session

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Twelve

• This has been “a pandemic of biblical proportion”

• Regardless whatever else it has brought to a halt, it hasn’t brought violence, etc., to a halt

• The young are the faces of our future

• Our children are the trustees into whose hands the destiny of this church, one day, will be placed

• Begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already received

• We ought to answer with the Good News and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ

• The Gospel is the most profound way both to find good and to do good

• We, of all people, should be singing the Song of Redeeming Love

• “It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black”

• We can never run away from who we are: Children of the Living God, who never will forsake us

• I am his most precious possession—his child, to whom he has given his greatest gifts: friends, family, the Restored Gospel, etc.

• Binding families together is a bold activity in a divided world

• These are a few of the “reasons we give for the hope that is in us”

• If some challenges are not resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, perhaps that is part of the cross that Jesus expects us to take up

• God will guide us as our shadow by day and our pillar by night

• Jesus really does want me for a Sunbeam

• “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.” “Fear not; believe only, and she shall be made whole”

• Before I received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I had the Light of Christ: It was given to protect me and to teach [keep?] me

• We must run to the aid of those who are in danger of giving up the precious gift of the Light of Christ

• Please do not minimize the Eternal Light that God put in your soul before this world was; Do not destroy the life that Christ gave His mortal life to create

• Help is available, from others, and especially from God

• Go forward, and courage, and on, on to the victory!

• We have each other, and we have Him

 

[Stormin' Mormon]

1 hour ago, Kenngo1969 said:

Re: The sustaining 

One of my GC traditions is to walk to Taco Bell (about 3.5 miles from my house) while listening to the evening session, eat dinner  and then walk home (another 3.5 miles). This year, though, I'm in the middle of a period of intermittent fasting, so I stop eating every day after 2:00 pm. I therfore modified the tradition by making the walk an hour before the afternoon session started (listening to an audiobook), ate lunch, and then walked home listening to conference.

Thus it was that I found myself in the Taco Bell dining room during the sustaining of church leaders. Rather than look like a Crazy Man raising his right hand at seemingly random intervals, I signaled my sustaining vote by raising my cup of Baja Blast and taking a ceremonial drink.

A new tradition, perhaps?

Edited April 2, 2022 by Stormin' Mormon
Spelling

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Patrick Kearon, of the Seventy

• We’re all intrigued by long-odds survival stories: “Could I have done that?” Shackleton’s expedition

• Apollo XIII mission survival despite long odds

• Many have demonstrated goodness in the face of brutality, and have helped others survive at least one more day

• Are any of us living a survival story right now?

• Jesus has overcome the abuses of this world to give us the power, completely to rise above misery, pain, anguish, etc.

• “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” In all of our tribulations, we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us

• Fear not; I know your sorrow, and I have come to deliver you; my name is upon you, my angels have charge over you; I am in your midst; You are mine

• We may believe that we are unreachable or damaged beyond repair. Any abuse we have suffered abuse was not, is not, and never will be our fault

• “I am precious in His sight”

• I am defined by my Eternal identity as a Son of God

• Healing comes through the redemptive might of the Atonement of Jesus Christ: It has power to right all wrongs

• The Savior has descended below all things, so He knows exactly how it feels to feel abandoned and broken

• There is no place for any kind of abuse

• God is a God of justice, and His Divine Justice will be served

• Also, He is a God of mercy for all of those who do all within their power to make the wrongs they have done right

• Unrepentant abusers will stand before the Lord to account for the abuse they have committed

• We can have a new beginning and a fresh start through the atonement

• In Gethsemane and on Golgotha, Christ took upon Himself all of our suffering

• We can let go of our burdens and leave them at the Savior’s feet

• “I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly”

• Jesus specializes in the impossible: To right the unrightable, to heal the unhealable, etc.

 

[Kenngo1969]

Marcos A. Adukaitis of the Seventy

• The Gathering of Israel is the most important thing taking place in the world today

• The Gathering makes an eternal difference to all

• Heavenly Father saved his most noble spirits for this final scene

• We have been born now to participate in the great work of the Gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil

• “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God”; “All that the Father hath” shall be given to those who receive ordinances and keep covenants

• Serving as a full-time missionary is one of the most important things we can do to participate in the Gathering of Israel

• Elder Adukaitis’s dentist (!!!) tried to discourage him from serving a mission

• When he asked for a two-year deferment of his university studies, he was told it was impossible

• If he didn’t get the deferment, he would need to pass a difficult exam

• “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me”

• Christ’s mission “caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain”

• There is a difference between being blessed and being richly blessed

• “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” –Isaiah 55:8-9

• His capacity to face challenges was greatly helped by his service on his mission

• He learned for himself that God is a God of miracles

• God is our Father, and without any doubt, He wants the best for us

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Twelve

• Of all the people on earth, perhaps only one has been named Gerrit Walter Gong

• Men are that they might have joy, but there are times and seasons to every purpose under heaven

• Of all the people who have lived on the earth, salvation is an individual affair

• “Living trees have branches—and roots.” –Russell M. Nelson

• The question “Where are you from?” also invites us to discover our Divine identity

• When asked where in life meaning comes from, most people answer “Family.”

• Temple and family history work open the heavens and enable us to become welding links between generations

• Sometimes, our community becomes our family

• Happy is too short if family relationships do not last forever, and forever is too long if our family relationships are not happy

• The sociality we enjoy here may be enjoyed hereafter with eternal glory

• As we perform family history, the Spirit of Elijah will attend our work

• Celebrate and have gratitude for your heritage

• Help unite families eternally

• There are more waiting to be united on the other side of the veil than on this side

• Families are the very purpose for which God created the Heavens and the Earth and saw that they were good

[Kenngo1969]

4 minutes ago, Stormin' Mormon said:

One of my GC traditions is to walk to Taco Bell (about 3.5 miles from my house) while listening to the evening session, eat dinner  and then walk home (another 3.5 miles). This year, though, I'm in the middle of a period of intermittent fasting, so I stop eating every day after 2:00 pm. I therfore modified the tradition by making the walk an hour before the afternoon session started (listening to an audiobook), ate lunch, and then walked home listening to conference.

Thus it was that I found myself in the Taco Bell dining room during the sustaining of church leaders. Rather than look like a Crazy Man raising his right hand at seemingly random intervals, I signaled my sustaining vote by raising my cup of Baja Blast and taking a ceremonial drink.

A new tradition, perhaps?

Sustain the Brethren by playing a drinking game?  Yep, that's definitely a different twist!  

[Kenngo1969]

Elder Adrian Ochoa of the Seventy

• “Is the plan working?”

• “If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can ye feel so now?”

• Do I feel like the disciples felt when they were in the ship in the midst of the storm on the Sea of Galilee? “Be of Good Cheer; it is I; be not afraid” “Lord, save meave faith in Jesus Christ:

• “If it be Thou, bid that I come to thee on the water”; “Come”

  • • Family who had lost loved one: “Daddy, it’s OK. He is teaching the Gospel.”

    • Praying, studying scriptures, watching General Conference are acts of faith

• When we struggle, that is when we need the Plan the most

• Coming to Christ means following him, not just thinking about Him, talking about Him, or even loving Him

• Missionary gained testimony of the Book of Mormon by applying Moroni’s Promise

• He wants you to be a part of this great work

• Never will the Plan of Happiness become more real to you than when you are helping others

• Come unto Him; Follow Him; and immediately shall the great plan of redeption be brought about unto you